I bought some heavy oak doors from a company and they installed them – unfortunately a couple of thedoors weren’t closing as well as I expected, so I tried to adjust the hinges. I had a bit of a lookfor these types of hinges on USA web pages, but it looks like they’re a bit specific to Europe.Here’s an example of the type of hinge I’m talking about:http://www.svezakucuidom.com/proizvod.php?id_kat=435&id=4445The cylinder part is like the steel welders hinges and each cylinder has a threaded part (one is screwed into the door and the other into the frame – as per usual).

The problem is that in my desire to improve the situation, I just made it worse ;) – on one hinge, the threadedpart which screws into the door frame is loose / not staying vertical – what would be the best way to fixthis ?

-- Vjeko Balas - Croatia

6 replies so far

A joint in the hinge? In that case I imagine you want to replace the hinge.

Or is it the connection between the hinge and the door frame that is loose? In the worst case you can remove the hinge, drill out the hole and glue in a piece of dowel. After the glue dries you can drill the correct size hole for the hinge and re-install the hinge. A short cut that might work is to remove the hinge and coat the inside of the hole with some glue – thick epoxy would be best. What you are going for is not to fill the hole but to make it smaller with a thick layer of glue on the sides. Once the glue is cured try reinstalling the hinge and see if it is sufficiently tight. If not, resort to the dowel.

It looks like there is a threaded insert in the door and in the hinge. I would check to see if that insert is still tight on either side and if not possibly do like GregD said and use epoxy around the insert and let it cure.

I was thinking of doing what GregD suggested but wanted to see if there was any other alternativeor specific type of glue or other substance which could be used .

Just to make it clear – if you look at the link I indicated, you have two cylinderstop one is hollow on the inside and the bottom one has the same size protrusion as the hollow sectionof the top one. OK, I think that’s clear – so they sit on top of each other and can rotate.Each cylinder also has the threaded part – one cylinder is screwed into the door and one into thedoor frame – directly into wood. The door and frame are made of oak – there are no inserts. The cylinder which is screwed into the door is tight and staying vertical, the one screwed into the frame is not so tight
and is leaning.

There are 3 hinges per door.

It is my opinion also that this type of hinge is not the best long lasting solution but unless I replaceall of them, I’m stuck with fixing the one that is loose.

I think I will try what GregD suggested unless someone knows of anything better than epoxy.

A quick fix will be using white carpenters glue and an everyday tooth pick. (Perhaps 2) fill the hole with glue, insert 1 or two tooth picks, rethread the hinge into the hole and let it sit 1-2 hours. Thicker wood sometimes spits the door, toothpicks are soft enough to let the screw bite into it without doing more damage to door itself.